IB Program Newsletter
January 2022
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May 2022 Exam Schedule
APPROACHES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS
Communication and Social Skills
Students is Mrs. David's IB Biology HL II class students created an Oscar worthy muscle movie! Muscle contraction may seem like a simple action of the body that you don't think much about, but in reality, it is a very complicated process. Students played the roles of different structures, proteins, neurotransmitters, while others served as the cameraman/director and narrator. They were tasked with trying to determine the best way to "act out" and represent their particular role in a muscle contraction.
Thinking Skills
Students in Mrs. Vierno's junior IB English Literature class are studying the life and works of Pablo Neruda, a 20th-century Chilean poet, specifically his published poems in 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924). His work is influenced by surrealist art movements, so students researched an artist and then chose a work of art that they felt reflects a poem they have studied. They created a Google Draw to display their analysis and chosen artwork. Some examples of student work are below.
Research Skills
Students in Mrs. LaGarry's IB Biology SL class measured the amount of carbon dioxide produced before and after exercise.
Self-management Skills
Students in Mr. Covell's junior IB History class worked on the concept of transcendentalism, which was a response to the development of the factory system and forcing workers to follow an artificial clock punching in and out of the factory. The assignment asked students to go through a series of exercises using reflection and mindfulness over 5 days to hone their self-management skills.
Research Skills
Students in Mrs. Normile's IB Psychology SL class finished their internal assessments (IAs). For their IAs, students had to replicate a published psychological experiment. They carried out their own research and wrote a report on their findings.
Caillie Perry, Kristen Oliver, Logan Eggleston, Brayden Dutton (absent)
Research Topic: Can our perception of an ambiguous object be influenced by priming with indirect language cues?
Aaron Binion, Mason Pearson, Logan Speer
Research Topic: Can an eyewitness's memory of an event be influenced by information received after the event?
Lia Lazare, Sunny Thompson-Garrow, Isabelle Wilson
Research Topic: Which memory encoding technique (rehearsal or imagery) leads to better recall of a list of words?
Marlana Trimboli & Sarah Ward (absent)
Research Topic: Which memory encoding technique (rehearsal or imagery) leads to better recall of a list of words?
Lia Paige, Gabrielle Laughlin, Bayley Rochefort, Aidan Aldous
Research Topic: Can our perception of an ambiguous object be influenced by priming with direct language cues?
Emilie Fregoe & Ella Thompson
Research Topic: How does the intensity of music played affect an individual's ability to concentrate during a task?
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Junior TOK students spent several weeks investigating how knowledge is produced and communicated in indigenous societies. They were tasked with making visual representations of 4 different ideas on a large sheet of paper. The objective was to be able to explain how a society’s values can determine the purpose of its knowledge about the natural world. Students deeply examined the concept of "ownership" of knowledge by researching examples of biopiracy.
IB Program Coordinator
Mrs. Normile
Email: jnormile@mcs.k12.ny.us
Website: https://jnormile1.wixsite.com/ibprogram
Location: Massena High School
Phone: 315-764-3710